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green, yellow, red card system.  

post #1 of 59
8/28/08 at 1:59pm
Thread Starter 
Anyone's kindergartner ever come home with a red card?

My son (6 in October) just started Kinder almost 2 weeks ago. And came home with a red card and a note from the teacher stating why he had gotten a red card.
He talked when the teacher was trying to teach.
He didn't finish his work.
He didn't raise his hand to talk.
And something else.

Is this pretty normal behaviour for an almost 6 yr old who had never been in school (outside the home) he has never been in daycare, never been away from me really. I hope this is normal.
post #2 of 59
8/28/08 at 2:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sahmnlovingit View Post

Is this pretty normal behaviour for an almost 6 yr old who had never been in school (outside the home) he has never been in daycare, never been away from me really. I hope this is normal.
Absolutely normal IMO. I totally object to this kind of behavioral modification technique being used on our children.
post #3 of 59
8/28/08 at 2:29pm
yep your little guys is typical, he misbehaved a little (or alot) depending on what exactly the "something else" was ...
post #4 of 59
8/28/08 at 2:35pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by lightheart View Post
yep your little guys is typical, he misbehaved a little (or alot) depending on what exactly the "something else" was ...
ROFL, i forgot what the something else was!
I think it that was it. LOL
post #5 of 59
8/28/08 at 3:56pm
very normal. I hate the public school disapline system. It has been especially rough for my 3rd grader. He tries so hard to be "good" but some of his teachers are just harsh old bitties that forget that kids need to move occasionally.
post #6 of 59
8/28/08 at 6:07pm
Yep, my very sensitive, sweet ds came home with a "yellow" today, day 3 of kindy, for nudging a boy back after the boy (a wild one, I already noticed him) shoved my ds. I'm very upset about it actually. This was one of the main reasons I was hesitant to do public schools, but this one is brand new and right down the street from us, so I wanted to give it a try. It's not starting out so well though...
post #7 of 59
8/28/08 at 7:25pm
In our school they'd only get a red card for those things if the teacher had to repeatedly remind the child of the classroom rules, not just for doing it once or having a multitude of things. There are different things that are done before the child gets a red. Most kids will get a yellow 1-2 times a year & never move onto red. There are only a handful of kids who move onto a red one.

Teachers do tend to be a bit harder at the beginning of the year & relax them a bit as the year goes on.

They use the card system for K only.
post #8 of 59
8/28/08 at 10:43pm
That stuff all sounds totally normal to me.
post #9 of 59
8/29/08 at 12:33am
Our son's teacher sends home a paper every day for the parents to sign. There's a spot for each day and in the spot she draws a face. Blue smiley face = Super, Green straight face=Good, Yellow sad face=needs improvement, Red *crying* face=something bad I don't remember. (Seriously, is she really drawing red, crying faces?? ) I don't think it's her system alone b/c that doesn't seem like her style.
I'm not crazy about that type of beh. mod system, either, although I suppose I should not complain b/c so far ds has gotten all blue smileys. The thing is, he's very proud of himself, so I let him know I'm proud of him too.

I really think the reason they use this system, where we have to sign every single day is to keep parents accountable. Much more so than the kids. Sad.
post #10 of 59
8/29/08 at 12:42am
Yes, this kind of thing was big when I did my student teaching in public school. When I got my own classroom in a private school, I found this system to be abhorrent and I did not use it. I kept a private book for myself and wrote notes home to parents if I needed to.

The system was too much paper work. If I had a problem, I talked to the parent immediately and documented it.
post #11 of 59
8/29/08 at 8:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by uccomama View Post
Absolutely normal IMO. I totally object to this kind of behavioral modification technique being used on our children.
I agree.

My DD was in a kindergarten outside the home last year. Her teacher used a car system. They had their car moved on the road through the stop lights (red, yellow, green) if they got in trouble for anything. My DD was a talker so her car was moved almost daily for talking in class. And it was mostly the girls who got in trouble each day, not the boys.

I didn't agree with this system but was a way to enforce class rules and her teacher had 22 students to keep in line for 7 hours a day so who was I to argue her way of doing it.
post #12 of 59
8/29/08 at 10:21am
I disagree with this kind of behavior mod in theory.

However, we've pulled our kid from a school where they didn't do this and put him into a school that does this, and I'm happy. He is distracted by kids who talk, jump up and down, and push him while he's trying to work. So if those kids are being given yellow cards, and it keeps them from distracting my kiddo from learning, that's great. I would absolutely not be fine with suspending or paddling, but the card system is a relatively benign type of discipline, if you're going to have any discipline. Perhaps there are teachers that can manage classroom behavior without a system of any kind, I do believe it could happen, but in practice I've seen it fail terribly.

I've asked about their card system (they have green, yellow, orange, and red), and even the yellow seems to be given out rarely, for things like hitting in the classroom. (Why in the world are kids hitting in the classroom?!) And it's the first week, when she's probably being more strict than normal.
post #13 of 59
8/29/08 at 1:37pm
It worked well for my dd in kindergarten (now going in to 2nd), but I don't know how effective it will be for my son (starting K). She was distraught when she got a yellow card, but it did help her to understand the rules of the class. And she was very proud to bring home green week after week. It's a great way for the kids to feel a sense of accomplishment for just doing the right thing.

There were kids who brought home red after red, and I overheard one mom saying to her son "if you can stay off of red tomorrow I will take you to Legoland." Yep, not the most effective form of parenting in my book, but there you go.

When my son starts bringing home red (and I am sure he will) it will take a few conversations with him and he will get it. He doesn't break the rules intentionally, he just doesn't always understand them at first. We are working on following the rules. He can break all the rules he wants when he gets to college.
post #14 of 59
8/29/08 at 10:19pm
I'm not sure what to think of this yet. I just learned of a similar system at my ds's school. My ds told me yesterday that he was on yellow and sure enough when I went to open house last night I saw what he meant. There are three "lights" on the board looking like a stop light. There were little school buses with a student's name on every one. Pretty much the whole class of buses was near the green light, but my son and another boy and three girsl were on yellow. Apparently they do this daily, it takes several offences to get to yellow and several more to get to red. If you get to red you have a note sent home to your parents, but otherwise I don't think there is any notification. Being on yellow didn't seem to phase my son at all...
post #15 of 59
8/30/08 at 12:25am
I hate it. That being said, when I was teaching in the public schools the K teachers had one teacher and 22 kids. There isn't enough time to give each child individualized academic attention, much less individualized behavior interventions.

I have no idea. I sometimes hate some of the things I do when I teach, but I am constantly reading trying to better my understanding of children and behavior.

Imagine what your run of the mill teachers who just don't care anymore are doing.
post #16 of 59
8/30/08 at 2:06am
My son's kindy teacher has a chart with their names on it. They get a star each time she sees them doing something positive. She also has a yellow bus for each child with their name on it and 2 columns with a happy face and a sad face. Their bus gets moved to the sad face side if they do something big like hit another kid or are openly disrespectful--she said at Back to School night last night that she tries not to use that unless she has to. She does have a card system like the ones described above for later in the year, but said that last year she never even had to pull them out.

So overall it is a "positive/negative reinforcement" system, but she definitely weighs heavy on the positive, so it doesn't bother me too much.
post #17 of 59
8/30/08 at 6:53am
We have a similar system in dd's private school. I think it is a good system and works well. Kids need to learn that they play a role in creating a good learning environment and that causing distractions for the class is disrespectful to everyone. Yes, totally normal behavior for that age, but so, too, is sitting quietly during instruction and letting it all out on the playground.
post #18 of 59
8/30/08 at 1:15pm
D school does green yellow orange and red

Green - no issues
Yellow given a warning no other conquence
orange repeated or more 'serious" offense time out or loss of recess
red - repeated offenses (and generally more than talking when they shouldn't) parents called three reds suspension 5 and they are dismissed from the program..

Overall I'm okay with the system assuming the teacher understands the development of the average 5-7 year old.
post #19 of 59
8/30/08 at 9:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by velochic View Post
We have a similar system in dd's private school. I think it is a good system and works well. Kids need to learn that they play a role in creating a good learning environment and that causing distractions for the class is disrespectful to everyone. Yes, totally normal behavior for that age, but so, too, is sitting quietly during instruction and letting it all out on the playground.
I agree. My dd is the one who complains if someone is being distracting and she can't learn. And that started in pre-school.
post #20 of 59
8/30/08 at 10:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by velochic View Post
We have a similar system in dd's private school. I think it is a good system and works well. Kids need to learn that they play a role in creating a good learning environment and that causing distractions for the class is disrespectful to everyone. Yes, totally normal behavior for that age, but so, too, is sitting quietly during instruction and letting it all out on the playground.
Yes, children in school need to understand what a respectful learning enviroment is and how to achieve it. But sitting still quietly can be achieved without operant conditioning which is what the green/yellow/red card system is. My children's private schools hae achieve just that without any kinds of behvaior modification techniques. Ds's school utilitzes Beyond Consequences, Logic and Control.
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